Coronavirus: New York governor 'can't imagine' Trump would fire top health expert Dr Fauci

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New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has commented on speculation President Donald Trump was considering firing his top health expert for criticisms of federal government's response to the coronavirus pandemic.

"I think (Dr Anthony Fauci)'s been extraordinary and I can't imagine ... as crazy as things get in this world and in crazy Washington ... I can't imagine that would ever happen," Mr Cuomo said Monday about the potential firing.

Speculation started on Sunday evening that Mr Trump could fire Dr Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and member of the White House's coronavirus task force, after the president retweeted a critical comment about the expert.

“Fauci is now saying that had Trump listened to the medical experts earlier he could’ve saved more lives,” read a tweet by former Republican congressional candidate DeAnna Lorraine. "Fauci was telling people on February 29th that there was nothing to worry about and it posed no threat to the US at large. Time to #Fire Fauci.”

The president added to the critical comment by writing: "Sorry Fake News, it's all on tape. I banned China long before people spoke up."

Mr Trump has boasted his travel ban as proof his administration was not slow on reacting to how the coronavirus was spreading globally. The president was correct in stating he issued a travel ban on foreign nationals coming from China starting on 2 February, but more than 40,000 Americans and other people have since entered the country from China, according to the New York Times.

This weekend, the New York Times released a report outlining how Mr Trump "could have seen what was coming" with the pandemic. The report detailed multiple instances, including economic advisor Peter Navarro's memo and a coronavirus task force meeting with a top disaster response official, that could've encouraged a faster response towards shutting down the US.

When appearing on CNN's State of the Union on Sunday, Dr Fauci was asked if the federal response was slow.

"I mean, obviously, you could logically say that if you had a process that was ongoing and you started mitigation earlier, you could have saved lives," Dr Fauci told CNN's Jake Tapper.

"Obviously, no one is going to deny that. But what goes into those decisions is complicated," he added. "But you're right, I mean, obviously, if we had right from the very beginning shut everything down, it may have been a little bit different. But there was a lot of pushback about shutting things down back then."

Dr Fauci's comments have come at a time when the president and his administration has battled over decisions of when to reopen the country.

The president has repeatedly expressed how eager he was to get the economy running again, saying he would like to open it with a "big bang". But health experts, including Dr Fauci, have pushed back on this rhetoric over fears opening the country too early would cause a resurgence of the coronavirus.

In recent days, Mr Trump has used his Twitter account in an attempt to discredit any reports that criticise his response to the pandemic.

"If the Fake News Opposition Party is pushing, with all their might, the fact that President Trump "ignored early warnings about the threat," then why did Media & Dems viciously criticise me when I instituted a Travel Ban on China? They said "early & not necessary." Corrupt Media," he wrote.

A White House spokesman has since said Dr Fauci would not be fired.